Tommy Collison

Looking for my debate file this morning, I found this. It’s a Doctor Who screenplay opening that I wrote the day of my confirmation at around half seven in the morning.

Thought you might like to see. My first time experimenting with screenplays so don’t shoot me if I get a term wrong. :)

Blank

The camera appears behind a man’s eyes as they slowly blink open. He is on a street corner. It is night, and he doesn’t know how he got there. He stumbles to his feet, shaking all the while.

Man
(disorientated)
Must…have…drugged…me…

Shot :: ex. night. following man along road

The man makes his slow progress along the street. He passes shop fronts, but takes little notice of them.

Another street corner;

The man comes to a halt beside a railing by the road. He leans against it as if he is about to be sick. Suddenly, there is a flash of alien blue light and the man screams as he is thrown backwards against a door.
The man slowly stands up. His gaze (and the camera) pan upwards, towering above the other buildings in the city is a white and blue building with HOSPITAL written on the side in red.

ex. night

The camera is in front of the man looking behind as he hobbles along the road, making fast progress toward the building.

INT. NIGHT. INSIDE ONE OF THE HOSPITAL CORRIDORS

All is quiet. The camera pans around until it reaches the window, where we can just make out a man sprinting toward the doors.

EX. NIGHT. HOSPITAL CAR PARK.

The man is sprinting now, to avoid them. If they catch up with him, he is dead. But, if he reaches the sanctuary of the indoors…

Suddenly, a brilliant blue light comes from the sky and a car explodes beside him. He is thrown again to the ground. Groaning in pain, he crawls to the door.

INT. HOSPITAL.


The automatic doors PING! shut and the man collapses to the ground.
The camera pans upwards to the ceiling to show the hospital lights begin to flicker. The man looks up and sees this. It seems to give him new vigor. He stands up and, with a wobble, begins making his way down another corridor.

INT. CORRIDOR

An old woman in a nurse’s uniform is trudging down a corridor. She crossly murmurs something about the electricity as she passes through another set of double doors. Suddenly she sees the man. He has given up and is lying on the floor. There is a beat when she believes him dead, but then sees the steady rise and fall of his lungs. She runs to him. He is murmuring something under his breath; the same word over and over yet it is too low to hear.

NURSE
What? I can’t understand you

The man continues murmuring, but he is getting louder.

Man
(Faint at first)
Doctor…Doctor….Doctor!

The man jerks as if in pain and the woman becomes nervous.

Nurse
DOCTOR? DOCTOR WHO??!?